Album Review
Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
By Mayho
At first listen, ‘Only By The Night’ feels like an organic development from their last album, the critically acclaimed ‘Because Of The Times’. With tracks like ‘Sex On Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’, it becomes clear that they made this with the festivals and arenas in mind. Indeed, their forthcoming tour of Europe and America is dominated by large capacity venues and they are being hotly tipped to headline this year’s Glastonbury festival again. It’s no surprise they have left space in their tour for the festival and are conveniently playing in London’s 02 Arena (which they sold out in an hour) either side of the legendary annual event. Having been a surprise choice headliner for last year, the world was anticipating the prospect of another heartfelt, slowly maturing record from the Nashville four-some, and with the smouldering ‘Only By The Night’, it looks as if they have jumped straight from 3rd to 5th gear.
‘Only By The Night’ relies heavily on the signature Caleb Followill trick of impassioned vocals singing subjective lyrics, which can sound like the ramblings of a dirty old man on his first visit to Patong. On ‘I Want You’, Caleb raunchily declares 'Black cat with the gift down below / A choke and a gag / She spit up and came back for more' is probably one of the most subtle sung dirty lines you will hear. However Caleb’s droning gritty voice could probably tell you the worst news possible and you would still forgive him and feel like rocking out.
Opening track ‘Closer’, showing off their mature new production style, is mostly constructed from Matthew Followill’s haunting guitar feedback on a loop. The song demonstrates a natural progression from their last effort and shows promise for the remaining 10 tracks. Each of the previous three Kings of Leon albums have been cleverly cultivated to be more daring than previous efforts, while still trying to keep their feet firmly planted in that southern garage scene.
Nonetheless, some longer serving KOL fans will feel a little hard done by as some songs convey an impression a generation away from time-honoured tracks like ‘Molly’s Chambers’ and ‘The Bucket’. The singles ‘Use Somebody’ and ‘Sex On Fire’ are undeniably barnstormers. However you can’t help but feel that they will age rather quickly and soon become the cock-rock anthems of choice you can picture your dad playing air guitar too. Nathan Followill’s heavy rhythms dominates the rousing ‘Be Somebody’ and rescues the album from a fairly uneventful half way lull. Elsewhere, ‘17’ could well be the best sounding song about underage lust of the year, with Caleb’s soothing, multi- toned droning making the song enjoyable, even if the lyrics sound like they’re from a horny, drunken horse.
Only By The Night does keep that murky atmosphere throughout as the band effortlessly get to grips with their newfound studio techniques while still staying in that trademark KOL gritty territory. It is clear that since they decided to produce themselves, the boys have put their balls on the line and become a lot more creative in their approach. Their confidence in performing and composing seems to have increased ten-fold and Nathan has become one of the most transcendent and fluid drummers in rock right now.
With ‘Only By The Night’, Kings Of Leon have lived up to the hype and made the album expected of them. However I’m left with the feeling that they could be a much more fascinating and thought-provoking outfit if they don’t get too carried away with aiming for the mainstream radio play this record will surely give them.
The eyes of the world are now on Kings of Leon. Worldwide, millions of people will buy this album and see their gigs in 2009. But you can’t help but feel that they are in danger of deviating away from their well loved Strokes-esque signature sound to a bothersome, overplayed assemble like their touring partners U2, who 20 years on, have still got many people hoping that Bono will finally f**k off to Africa to eat his mountains of gold.
The question is where do they go from here? Will they stick with the stadium rock records they have created? Will they keep sitting on the toilet to see what they come up with next? Will their haircuts become even twattier? Only time will tell. The bar for their 5th album has just been raised that little bit higher.
Rating: 
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